Sunday, 15 January 2017

This one is going to annoy you in some respects.I will tell you right from the outset that
there are not an ideal number of times per week, duration or intensity to train
at.A lot depends on things like exact age,
outside stress, other activities that will affect how many times a week you
train and how long those sessions last. I can sum up the ideal in one sentence
though and from there we can look at options.

The amount of times a
week you can stick to and the time you are willing to put in each session is
the ideal...

That answer probably nearly made you throw your phone/laptop
through the nearest wall! I know that is a really aggravating answer, but that
is the stark truth.I can give you the
perfect workout for you, but if you are not willing to do it, then it is an
inferior workout to hitting the whole body once for 45 minutes a week. If you
can stick like glue to once a week, but do your ‘perfect’ workout for 2 weeks
and then never do it again, which is the best?

Being honest with yourself

Let’s start with being honest. You may have decided that
working out 4 times a week is perfect to maximise your muscle gains, but will
you actually turn up for every session? I am not talking about now, but in 3
weeks, in 3 months or even in a year or more? What about when you have that
room to decorate, what about when you need to get those tax returns done, what
about when the stress at work means you are feeling burnt out?If you can, then fine, but if you can
definitely get 2 sessions in per week, but would struggle with 4, then 2 would
be your ideal.

I will start with something many people will find very controversial,
my opinions on age and training.

Age

Let’s cut to the chase on this one.I find it hard listening to a young guy
talking about how older people should exercise.They may have some experience in that area, but they do not live with the
issues getting older brings.I am sure
many younger people have insights, but I prefer to get the opinion of older
coaches and personal trainers. For the record I am over 50 and have had
injuries and issues that many older trainees have been through.

My belief is that older people need to do more than their
younger equivalents.I know, that is not
the common view point.In fact most
coaches suggest that older athletes do less, but hear me out and make up your
own mind.

Most older trainees are less interested in competition and
more interested in training longevity, plus most older trainees have previous
injuries (because we too were once young and very stupid!). So, our goals are
often not maximum lifts, but heavy weights done for sets, encouraging
hypertrophy (muscle growth) and fighting off old age. To do these lifts we need
much more time warming up and doing mobility than the younger lifter doing the
same exercises.An older person may need
to warm up and mobilise the shoulders and elbows for 10-15 minutes to hit a press,
we may also need to move our bodies a lot more to maintain flexibility and
strength throughout the range of motion of an exercise. So, we may spend a
greater proportion of time doing mobility, bodyweight movements and preparing
our bodies for the workout than a younger person.

So whereas a younger person may have:

·5 minute Warm-up

·45 minute workout

An older person may have:

·20 minute warm-up

·40 minute workout

So as you can see, the older person will be moving their
body for longer than the younger person.

As you age the whole idea of use it or lose it becomes
much more immediate.The older you
become, the quicker it is to lose the ability to do an exercise and the harder
it is to gain new skills or regain lost physical abilities.If you do not practice skills regularly, then
they will disappear, so if you are like most people who hit the gym and do not
wish to lose any skills you have acquired over the years, then you will have to
practice skills a lot more often than when you were younger.The sheer mass of abilities you want to keep
also force you to be doing physical activity a lot more.Let me hasten to add that you may do these
outside the gym.You could practice a
range of bodyweight movements at home (Planche, L-sit, pull-ups, push-ups,
headstands, handstands, sprinting...the list goes on), but these all have to
fit into your weekly/monthly, schedule if you wish to keep these abilities into
really old age. Also most of these need some sort of warm-up to avoid injury.

So, as you can see an older trainee may need to spend more
total time working out as they need to warm-up in a thorough fashion and
practice physical abilities more often.

What this does not mean is working out balls to the wall every day, or anything like that.I do believe that older people should do
something physical everyday.This can be
as simple as some push-ups and pull-ups at home, or going out and sprinting for
10 minutes, rope jumping on the porch or 30 minutes mobility, but everyday
something should be done.Coach Dan John
has a saying:

If it is important, do it every day

For the older athlete this is especially true.If you need to improve your squat, then squat
every day.This does not mean go to max
every morning doing a back squat.Simply
add bodyweight squats into your warm-up, or just knock out some squats every day.Even ditch your chairs and sit on a cushion
on the floor, so if you want to get up or sit down, you are forced into a full
squat. For the older athlete holding a barbell, a single kettlebell or dumbbell
overhead and squatting adds unique challenges, using weights that stress the
back a lot less, or get an Ironmind Hip Belt if the back is an issue.As an older trainee you need to get creative
working around the limitations your body imposes.

Movement (NEAT)

Non-exercise Activity
thermogenesis is the fancy term used to describe things you do that burn
calories, but are not part of your exercise routine. In keeping with my belief that
older trainees need to workout more often, I also believe that the older you
get the more important it is to move more often than younger people. Things
like walking to the shops, spending 10 minutes after each meal walking (good
for anyone who wants to improve insulin sensitivity), just doing physical
things becomes more important for the older athlete.You need to plan your life in such a way that
you can be active outside of the gym. Think about it, no matter how hard you
workout for 30-60 minutes, it will never, ever overcome being sedentary for
23-23.30 hours every day, how could it? So, plan on regular activity throughout
the day.Anyone can go for a walk for 10
minutes after each meal, just try it.Eat a meal then walk 5 minutes one way, turn around and walk 5 minutes
back, aim at a brisk pace.If you sit
for an hour, get up, stretch and do mobility for 10 minutes, then carry
on.In the long run this will help you
achieve your goals.

Picking your movements

Most of the movements you choose should be things you enjoy.If you hate everything then you will never
succeed as you will find any excuse to avoid them.However, there are some things you know need
to be done, you will probably hate these.These are things you need to do.Add
them at the start, not the end of a session, put the things you really enjoy at
the end, so you are more likely to finish a session.So, if you have a bad shoulder, doing band
dislocates, band pull aparts and clubbell swings may be boring for you, but they
may be very necessary.You may need to
add in 5-10% of things you do not enjoy doing, but mainly include things you
enjoy doing.

Friday, 13 January 2017

This time of year a lot of people are on the fat loss hunt.
Looking to cull some of the fat they have accumulated over the last few years
(or even decades!). The dream of
achieving leanness for some is an elusive goal. So, maybe we should run through
one way to achieve your goal. Not everyone is the same, but there are a few
basic rules that are common to virtually everyone.

The fatter you are, the easier you will lose fat (at the
start).

If you have 25% bodyfat and you are a male you will be able
to drop to 20% bodyfat much easier than a male at 20% bodyfat trying to drop to
15%, dropping from 15% to 10% or below will depend on a tough program to reach
those goals.

Females naturally carry a little more fat and so if you add
5% fat to each of the above scenarios, then they are about comparable. So, a female
with 30% fat can get to 25% with a few changes, while a female trying to drop
from 25% to 20% will find things a little bit harder, and usually getting from
20% bodyfat to 15% or under is a very much harder proposition.

Stage 1: A male getting from 25% to 20% bodyfat or a female
trying to get from 30% to 25% bodyfat.

A 25% bodyfat male or a 30% bodyfat female is usually
considered overweight.The usual reason
for this is a bad diet and/or excessive calories along with a lack of exercise. This fix is relatively simple.
Simply pick one or two bad habits and change them. So, stop drinking sodas and
switch to herbal tea, find a slightly less calorie dense meal or choose a
healthier dessert.Along with that add a
little exercise, like a short 10 minute walk after each meal, or similar.You do not need anything too harsh to drop
this weight normally.However, if you
have stuck with it for a month and the weight hasn’t shifted, simply add in a
few more changes and see how that affects your body fat levels.

Stage 2: A male getting from 20% to 15% bodyfat or a female
trying to get from 25% to 20% bodyfat.

This is what most people would consider a healthy range. So,
your body is most comfortable hanging around these fat levels. To get a change
you have to start making different changes to get fat loss continuing.The first suggestion is to tighten up the
diet a little more.This can be trickier
than the earlier fat loss as you may have removed most of the regular foods
that are associated with fat loss.Some
people may need to work on portion control (the size of the plate), or really
refine their food choices for some of the meals to hit their goals. In terms of
exercise I would keep the walking in and add in weight training.I would use a faster paced workout (once the
exercises are mastered), resting very little.You are not going for lifting the maximum you can, but to accumulate
fatigue and ramp up the metabolism if you are interested in a routine to get
you started, let me know below and tell me what equipment you have available
and I will see if I have time to get a routine sorted out for you.

So, your diet improves again (you are about 70% healthy
whole foods and 30% other stuff) at this point.You can still have that slice of pizza or a glass of wine when you go
out for that weekend meal, but much of the time you are eating healthy, mainly
whole foods.

Stage 3: A male getting under 15% and a female getting under
20%

This is when you need to dial in your diet and exercise.
Many people dropping to these body fat levels are athletes or into
fitness.To achieve this you should keep
up everything you have included before, but you should be exercising with weights
3 times a week as well as walking or jogging for cardiovascular health. Your
diet will also have to get tighter.You
should be aiming at 80-90% healthy whole foods and 10-20% other food.So, you do not go without foods that are not
ideal, but you do limit them. This might vary from person to person.One person may need to be stricter than
another, but everyone will need some discipline with their diet and exercise to
achieve these goals.

Stage 4: Once you are there

Once you have reached your goal bodyfat levels, whether this
is 18%, 14% or whatever, you have to move towards a maintenance diet.This does not mean returning to how you ate
before, but you do not need to be as strict to maintain as you need to be to lose
bodyfat. You can slacken the diet
slightly, but do not forget to eat a large percentage of healthy, whole food.
The lower your body fat, the more strict you need to be to continue to maintain
that fat level, otherwise the fat levels will begin to climb again.

So consider this when you set your goals.If you are a guy and you want 10% or less
body fat, then remember you might have work to maintain that, while at 15% you
may hardly notice any effort at all. Obviously there are outliers, those who find
it super-hard to lose fat and those who find it super-easy to stay ripped, but
for most of us staying around the 15% bodyfat for males and the 20% bodyfat for
females is relatively painless once you get there.

Hopefully this brief guide will give you an insight into how
you should approach your fat loss. I will leave you with this saying.I cannot remember who originally said it, but
I’ll paraphrase it below:

Usually you need to wait to receive the benefits from good things and
often the immediate result isn’t the most pleasurable.

Usually you get immediate pleasure from bad things, but later there is
always a price.

An example explaining the above saying can be working out, or making good food
choices.The immediate result is a hard
workout or not eating something very tasty.The later result is increased healthy and vitality.

You could also just lie in bed instead of working out and
eat cake.The immediate benefit is
snuggling down in a soft quilt and enjoying the cake.The later result is reduced health, tiredness
and an increased risk of chronic illness.

Sunday, 1 January 2017

Many of us have resolutions.We think that from 1st January we can suddenly go from our sedentary
selves, to introducing a new diet, and a new training routine...in short begin a
completely new lifestyle. I am sure there is a person out there that can do
that, but for most of us that goal is unrealistic. There are several reasons
for this, but the main reasons are the influence of willpower and habit.

Willpower

I see willpower like a bucket.When you need to do something novel, new or
you do not want to do, you have to take a ‘scoop’ of willpower from the bucket.There is one bucket of willpower every
day.You dip into it to get up early, to
wash-up, to get stuff done.The trouble
is the bucket varies in size daily and you need to use that willpower for
everything that you need to get done throughout the day. Once that bucket of
willpower is used up you will not get much more done that day.The more stressful the day, the smaller the
bucket and the more things you have to do that day, the faster the bucket is
emptied, so if you rely purely on willpower, some days you will fail to workout
or make good dietary choices simply because the bucket is empty.Willpower can get you places, but you shouldn’t
rely only on that or you will eventually fail.

Habit

Habit is the minds way of getting the body to do things that
it needs to do.So, if you always wake
up at 7, you will tend to continue to wake up at 7. The trouble is, if you have
always eaten badly, the force of habit can drive you to continue to exercise that
habit.If you always eat a burger and
fries at 11AM, you will always want a burger and fries at 11AM.

Putting them together

If you add together the power of habit and the limited
reserves of willpower, you can see how and why you fail.You actually have to use willpower to fight
against old habits, as well as try to introduce new exercise and eating habits.

In the end after a couple of weeks of struggling you will
find that your run out of willpower, old habits reassert themselves and you are
back to your old habits not even understanding why you failed...again?

Making change

People forget that any positive change is a positive, and
that you can accumulate changes over time. I believe that making one or 2
changes a month is the best way to introduce your New Years health plan.

Suppose you decide to work out once per week, but stick at
it every Wed evening, and have a healthy lunch, every day.Keep everything else the same this month, but
stick at that.I guarantee that after a
month you will look and feel better than you have in years (assuming you have
done no exercise and your diet isn’t that great).

Also, you only have to dip into the willpower bucket at
lunchtimes, and Wednesday evenings.Everything else is going with the flow.After a month, you will see that working-out and healthy lunch eating
has become a habit. If you want to make further changes, then you can, but keep
those changes small; add an extra workout (say Monday evening), and add a
healthy breakfast, then stick at that for at least another month before any
more changes are made.

Adding it all up

People forget that changes are cumulative. If you make one
change, then add another in a month they will begin to work together.Very few people can rewrite their entire
lifestyle and succeed, but many people can make a succession of small changes
and keep those changes happening over the course of years.Just little things, say you have a soda in
the morning and you drop that for an unsweetened herbal tea, you will save
almost 1,000Kcal per week! That alone will change your body composition. So, my
advice is to plan this New Year as the beginning of a process.You do not have to succeed 100% from 1st
January think of it more in terms of you will still be improving on 1st
June, as you keep introducing new ways to improve yourself.

So consider this isn’t a race. In fact it is the opposite.
The faster you introduce new things, the more likely you are to overload
yourself and fail. Add in things slowly one change at a time and watch the
improvements slowly accumulate.

Make this year, the year you break the cycle of New Year failure
and start on the road to exercise and dietary success.

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